Dr. Cynthia Comacchio

Contact Information

Languages Spoken

English

Academic Background

BA, GlendonMA, YorkPhD, University of Guelph

Biography

Academic Interests

My interests are Canadian social history, specifically the interrelations of class, gender, family and state in post-Confederation Canada; child and maternal welfare in the twentieth century; fatherhood; adolescence; the politics of health and health care; and the not- entirely-unrelated topics of industrial hygiene and "the technological sublime."

Recent Publications

Monographs

The Dominion of Youth: Adolescence and the Making of a ModernCanada, 1920-50. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006.

"Nations are Built of Babies": Saving Ontario's Mothers and Children, 1900-1940. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993.

The Infinite Bonds of Family: Domesticity in Canada, 1850-l940. University of Toronto Press, 1999.

"'Dancing to Perdition:' Adolescence and the Problem of Modern Leisure in Interwar Canada," in M. Conrad, A. Finkel, eds. Nation and Society: Readings in Post-Confederation Canadian History, II, Toronto: Pearson, 2004.

"‘The History of Us:’ Social Science, History, and the Relations of Family in Canada," in Bryan D. Palmer, ed. Labouring the Canadian Millennium: Writings on Work and Workers, History and Historiography. St. John’s, Nfld: Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002.

"Bringing up Father: Shaping a Modern Canadian Fatherhood," in E. A. Montigny, L. Chambers, eds. Family Matters: New Directions in Family History. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, l997.

James Snell and Cynthia Comacchio Abeele, "Regulating Nuptiality: Restricting Access to Marriage in Early 20th Century English Canada," in T. Loo, ed., Essays in Canadian Law. Toronto: Copp Clark, l994.

In the News

The Dominion of Youth: Adolescence and the Making of Modern Canada, 1920 - 1950, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006, won the Canadian Historical Association's Honourable Mention, Macdonald Prize, Best Book in Canadian History 2008, as well as the Canadian History of Education Association's Founders Prize, Best Book, 2008.